“It’s going this way!”

“Cut it off!”

Get out of my way you damn horses! I sprinted through the gardens with a fresh troop of guards recently alerted to my none-too-subtle return hot on my heels. A group of them clustered together in front of me, shields and spears raised to block my path.

Gonna have to do better than that. I moved my right shoulder to my front, charging straight at them.

“It’s not slowing down!”

“Hold steady!”

Their resolve lasted all of about five more seconds before I charged straight through their blockade, knocking several of them unconscious in the process. I took a sharp turn around a row of bushes, then jumped into them, concealing myself from view. I waited until I heard the sound of hooves pass by my hiding spot, then slowly fade away into the distance.

I climbed out of my hiding spot, glaring in the direction the guards went. “Staaaars…” I mumbled quietly before turning to leave.

...only to see a white unicorn mare covered in golden armor, standing directly in my way. She was pointing her spear at me, but it was shaking badly. She was terrified.

“S-stay where you are! Or I’ll be forced to hurt you!”

Cocking my head to the side slightly, I gripped the end of her spear, tearing it from her hold. She stumbled back and fell onto her flank, watching as I tightened my grip around the end of the spear, mangling the pointed end and rendering it useless. Saying nothing, I handed the weapon back to her. She stared at it for several moments before dropping the weapon and quickly jumping back to her hooves, her horn lighting up.

“I-I mean it! Don’t come any closer!”

Growling now, I slowly began to approach her.

ZAP!

I stumbled backwards, feeling something blast me in my midsection. I looked down, seeing a smoking charred spot on my overcoat. I blinked, looking back up at the unicorn mare.

She blinked as well, looking just as surprised as I was.

Shit I forgot… I thought to myself, my one good eye lighting up with red as I glared at the mare who was now somewhat more of a threat. I need my launcher, without it I don’t have any magic immunity. I stalked towards her now with renewed purpose.

The mare’s eyes grew wide as she fired another magical shot at me, but I sidestepped it and grabbed ahold of her by the throat, slamming her up against the exterior castle wall.

She writhed in my grip, but I only tightened it as I leaned forward to examine her. Purple eyes with a lock of golden mane sticking out from under her helmet.

She gritted her teeth, her horn lighting up again. I growled, tightening my free hand into a fist and hit her in the side of the face. Her eyes fluttered for a bit before closing, and the glow on her horn died down. I moved my hand down to her chest to ensure I could still hear a heartbeat. Still alive.

I dropped the mare onto the ground before walking in the opposite direction the guards had gone. Normally I wouldn’t make such an effort to avoid guard ponies, but without my launcher, magic could hurt me. Plus I didn’t really feel like staying here any longer than I needed to.

Now, if I were a dumbass princess of a kingdom full of talking ponies who only locked things away in metaphorical closets to deal with them later, where would I—

“NEMMY!”

JESUS CHRIST!

I spun around, prepared to knock whatever had scared me half to death into next week, only to have two yellow eyes with red irises take up my entire vision.

“Long time no see, Nemmy. Whatcha been up to? Read any good books lately? Gone on any adventurous quests? I for one ha- GAK!”

My hand closed around the draconequus’s neck, cutting off his air supply immediately.

Discord. I thought, my eye glowing red as I tightened my grip.

“N-now, Nemmy, I knew we were close, but you’re hugging me a bit too mu- HACK!”

I tightened my grip again, my thoughts seething with hatred.

Don’t give me that shit! You sold me out! After I promised to find a way to get you out, you stabbed me in the back, then left me to rot! I should kill you right now. “Stars!” I growled as I glared down at Discord.

Discord shook for several minutes before he suddenly turned blue, his eyes rolling back into his head as his body melted into liquid, which slipped through my fingers and turned into water around me. Which I then fell into.

“Ohahahah! That trick never gets old!”

I lifted my drenched self out of the small pool of water, growling.

“Now, Nemmy, don’t be a spoil sport. After all, if you were to kill me, how could I give you this?” He reached into his pocket, producing a long, sleek, black rocket launcher with the ‘Umbrella’ logo embedded on its side.

My eye widened. How did you…?

“Ohhh, a spirit of chaos has his ways, yes? Consider it an apology gift! Catch!” He tossed the launcher towards me, which I caught on its handle.

Almost immediately, it felt like a massive weight lifted from my shoulders. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as the small wound from earlier washed away.

...This doesn’t change what you did, but it’s a start.

“I’ll take that as a ‘Thank you you magnificent draconques! I love you!’”

That’s laying it on a bit thick.

“Ooooh, but everyone loves me! Just take a look at Ponyville!” Just then, a beeping sound came from Discord. He lifted his wrist to his face, looking at what seemed to be a watch. Then the watch face opened and a pie fired from it, smacking him in the face. “Oh yes! Ponyville! I almost forgot!” He twirled, tossing some of what remained of the pie from him and onto me. “Toodles, Nemmy! It’s been great catching up with you again, I’ll be sure to let the Princesses know you said ‘hi!’” And with a puff of confetti, the spirit of chaos was gone.

I wiped the remnants of pie off of me and looked down at my rocket launcher, remembering how I had gotten it..

“This is really heavy.” I said to my friend James, who was at the wheel as we drove to Comic Con. I had to hunch over in the passenger’s seat, my entire frame hardly even fit into the car. It had taken some time but with a few calls to some questionable people we had gotten everything we needed. James and I had slaved over this costume for the past few months, and now it was complete.

I looked like the badass himself. The only thing we were missing was the rocket launcher, which we didn’t have time to make. James decided to cut our losses and we decided this was good enough.

“Relax dude, we’re almost there.”

“Good. At this rate I think I might sweat out all of my bodily fluids before I even set foot outside of the car.”

The car finally came to a stop, and after I nearly tripped over my own feet actually climbing out of the car it was only a short walk to the Con itself.

We stopped a few times to talk to a few people, who complimented me on how awesome my costume was. I even stopped to take a few pictures with others.

It wasn’t long before we reached the shopping section. I wanted to look at what they had so James and I cut into one of the less-populated shops. A lot of the stuff in here looked like something you might find hanging on a shaman’s wall or something, tribal and indian-like.

“No way...Nick, come check this out.”

I made my way over to the counter where I saw, of all things, a model rocket launcher with the ‘Umbrella’ insignia on the side. I stared at it, unable to take my eyes off of it.

“We need to get that.” I said, my voice sounded foreign through the voice modifier I’d included in my outfit.

“Hell, for forty bucks? It’s practically a steal!”

The clerk suddenly made himself known, a decrepit looking old man with an expression that I couldn’t quite pin down. “For a costume like that, Nemesis?” He grinned at me. “Go ahead. It’s yours.”

“You’re fuckin’ kidding me right?” I had already grabbed it by the time I saw him shake his head. However, as I pulled it to my side, I felt something strange. I became dizzy, and everything in the room went double.

“It fits you perfectly.” I heard the clerk say with a devious smirk.

“Nick?”

Jame’s voice sounded far away, and I could only see the old man’s twisted smile before I fell backwards. Only, the ground didn’t greet me...

------------------------------------------------

It felt like a long time before I woke up again. When I eventually did, I didn’t feel the soft fabric of a hospital bed, or even the hard floor. I felt grass.

Ugh...what the fuck? I felt like I had put on about a thousand more pounds. I rose to a sitting position and tried opening my eyes, finding that I could only open one. I almost shut it immediately from the glare of the sun, but I forced myself to wake up.

I slowly began to rise to my feet, falling back down immediately from an immense weight on my right shoulder. Looking over, I saw I still had the rocket launcher gripped firmly in my hand, and I was still in my Nemesis costume.

You’d think someone would’ve gotten me out of this thing… I thought to myself as I finally managed to stand. Why did the launcher feel so much heavier? I put a hand to my face to feel for the edge of the helmet, but I felt only flesh. What…?

It took me a moment to process, but I realized I could actually feel my hand. As if the helmet was my actual skin.

I heard a gasp behind me, and turned. What I saw, was a pony with a basket of apples sitting at his hooves. He looked terrified.

“What the fuck? A pony?” Is what I wanted to say, but what came instead was “STAAARS!” The pony gave a very un-pony like shriek before running off.

Okay, either I was seriously tripping on some drugs someone slipped me, or I was in some seriously deep shit.

“I’ll tell you what we’ve learned, Discord! We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for!”

“Ugh! Gag! Fine, go ahead, use your little elements to ‘friend’ me!” Discord vanished in a flash, reappearing on his throne at the top of the hill. “Just make it quick, I’m missing some excellent chaos here!”

“Alright, ladies!” Twilight’s friends gathered around her, glaring at the spirit of chaos. “Let’s show him what friendship can do!”

“Waitwaitwaitwait!” The pleas came from a certain pink mare, who was holding her mouth open underneath a cotton candy cloud that was dropping its chocolate contents onto her. She gave a happy sigh before joining her friends with a growl, staring down Discord as well.

Discord gave out a yawn as Twilight closed her eyes, focusing on her bonds with her friends. Slowly, she felt the magic build up in her body, and she could feel her friends reacting to it too. Though her eyes were closed, she could hear Discord ask, “Hm? What’s this?”

When Twilight opened her eyes again, everything was glowing. The power reached a pinnacle, and then there was a bright flash, a trail of rainbow shooting from her and her friends towards Discord.

“Nooooooooo!!!!” Discord shouted, unable to do much else as his body turned to stone once more. There was another bright flash, and all the changes Discord had made to Ponyville were washed away in an instant. Discord’s statue fell to the ground with a distinct ‘thud.’

Twilight and her friend were about to burst into cheers when two bright flashes came from Discord’s side. Standing there, were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Twilight immediately bowed, as did Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Princess Celestia smiled at them and bid them to rise with her hoof.

“Well done, my student, you succeeded against Discord, just as I knew you would.” Luna trotted up next to her.

“Alas, tis not the time for celebration. While you were dueling with Discord, another enemy has arisen.”

Twilight frowned. “Another one? Is he just as bad as Discord?”

“Pft, I’m not worried!” Rainbow Dash spoke up, jabbing at the air with her hooves. “We’ll just give ‘em the one-two, zap him with some harmony magic, and that’ll be that!”

“I don’t think this enemy can be simply ‘zapped’ away, my friends. He is...peculiar.”

“How so, princess?” Rarity cocked her head as she asked.

Celestia bowed her head. “You see… it all started one thousand years ago…”

I sailed through the air with ease, landing in a large open square-like area with a crash, bending my knees with the impact.

The cool thing about super-strength is that you can get around VERY easily, faster than almost any other form of land transport. I was close to the exterior of Canterlot now, once I made it to the Everfree I could see how far the problem with the virus had spread since Celestia locked me away. I couldn’t imagine anything good, but I find in situations like this it’s best to remain optimistic.

I was about to jump again when, speak of the devil, I heard a very familiar and very unwelcome voice.

“Nemesis!” I stopped, turning to face Sun-butt. She wasn’t alone, flanking her left was Luna, or as I liked to call her Moony Mare, and on her right were six other ponies I didn’t recognize, all six of them wearing necklaces of some kind.

“Staaaaars…” I hissed.It’s been a long time, bitch. I growled, glaring at Celestia. Time really hasn’t been kind to you. You really let yourself go. She blinked before looking back at herself. She shook her head and glared at me once more.

“If you think we’ll just let you leave, then you’d best rethink your course of action. I can’t allow you to infect the land with your presence as you did in the past.”

Harsh. Coming from the Princess who started the whole thing.

“Lies! Blasphemous lies straight from Tartarus’ self!” Luna spoke up suddenly, and I directed my gaze to her.

And Luna. How was your imprisonment on the moon? Is it made of cheese after all?

“Silence monster! We will end your reign of terror here!”

“Girls, quickly, the elements, before he tries to run!”

“You got it, Princess!” The purple mare spoke up, closing her eyes as they began to glow.

Elements…? That rang a distant memory. I recalled something like that associated with Luna’s imprisonment.

Slowly, rainbows began to connect the six friends as a rainbow-colored light covered them.

Oh HELL no. If there was one thing I learned since I came to Equestria, it was that you do not fuck with rainbows. I remembered where I had heard of the elements before, Celestia and Luna used them to imprison me, and Celestia had used them on her sister as well. So, rather than dealing with that, I idly raised my rocket launcher to point at the ground in front of them.

“What’s…?”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “GIRLS! MOVE!”

Too late. I pulled the trigger, and I heard a sound like a jet as a rocket erupted from the end of my launcher, striking the ground a good distance in front of the group.

KABOOOM!!!

Flames launched high into the air, the force from the explosion blowing the tail of my overcoat behind me, lighting the entire area in an orange glow. I waited, until I felt debris raining down around me, smoke and flame concealing the ponies I was aiming to distract. I stepped through the smoke to examine the situation.

Luna laid off to the side, her back to me but I could tell she was breathing. The other six as well, laid scattered around the area. Bruised, and maybe some singed fur, but they were breathing. Celestia laid off to the side as well, her eyes closed.

Rocket beats rainbow. I grinned to myself before turning to walk away.

The sound of shifting stone made me pause, then I heard the telltale ringing of magic charging up before I spun around, raising my launcher in front of myself as a beam from Sun-butt’s horn hit it dead on, reflecting it off into a nearby street sign. The foundation melted from the sheer power behind the attack, and it fell over. I growled.

“STAAAAAAARSSSS!” I yelled, before rushing towards Celestia. She stumbled backwards, firing off more magic from her horn. I swatted each attack aside with my launcher before several tendrils disengaged from my body, wrapping around Celestia’s front hooves. She faltered and fell, and I slowed my pace to a walk as I dragged her towards me.

She dug her hooves into the ground to resist, but I simply applied more tendrils to her back hooves, her neck, and I wrapped one around her horn for good measure. I pulled her up to me so we were face to face. Then I smirked.

I am going to say this only once. Back off. One thousand years of imprisonment is a long time to think, and I’m willing to come to a compromise. You leave me alone, and I’ll return the favor.

She spat in my face.

My eye twitched slightly before I growled. Have it your way then, Princess… my grip on her tightened before I turned, throwing her to the ground.

I watched to make sure she was still breathing. As angry as I was, I couldn’t bring myself to kill them.

I looked around at the destruction I had wrought. A large crater was now in the center of the square, and ponies all around were cowering in fear of me. I merely growled before turning and walking away, leaving behind a city that surely had a lot of questions for their princesses...

Author's Notes:

See? Longer! Just as I promised.

Also, so there's no confusion, Discord, Celestia, and Luna are the only ones who can 'hear' Nemesis' thoughts. Unless he has his launcher, everyone else only hears 'staaaaarrrrs'. When he has his launcher, he can sort of broadcast his thoughts to everyone in his immediate vicinity.

Anyways, as always pleaaaase comment and let me know how I can improve! It's really appreciated.

Thanks for the read!